Banana Tarte Tatin, or Banana Upside Down Puffed Pancake (GFCF)

Glorified banana pancakes, upside down. Months back when I took the sensibilities of tarte tatin and pancakes and turned it into an apple upside down puffed pancake, shortly after posting it I made a version with bananas. I didn’t post about it, though, because I thought, well, I already covered the tarte tatin pancake. I’d hit that tricky spot in food blogging where one starts asking herself: should I blog about this or don’t I because I’ve already blogged something similar? Just leave it as a suggestion in the head note. Well, I didn’t leave a suggestion in the head note so here we are.

Oh, true. I could go back and make that adjustment – but wouldn’t it be more fun to devote an entire post to this glorious sensibility of a tarte tatin turned upside down pancake? I made two tarte tatin pancakes – one apple, the other this banana one, for a Christmas party and everyone loved it. I’ve made them several times before but I especially liked how the banana one came out this time. It was just perfect and the coconut milk in the batter blended beautifully with the fruit; it was sort of like banana cream pie but without the fuss. (My brother kept making jokes, referring to it as a banana cream pie.) It tasted like the best banana pancakes you could eat – glorified.

How you go about to make this is fairly simple: you slice ripe but firm, spotty-skinned bananas into the bottom of a parchment paper-lined, greased or buttered pie plate or pan and sprinkle the banana slices lightly with cinnamon and drizzle or squirt some lemon juice over it before pouring the pancake batter on top and popping it in the oven for half an hour.

I suppose if you wanted to go sort of traditional, a caramel sauce could be made to be served with the pancake but we all ate it as it was. Or if you wanted to go really fancy, serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle the caramel sauce on top.

I still haven’t made a traditional tarte tatin with the puff pastry, but some day I’ll get to it.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease an 8″ or 9″ pie pan or plate with coconut oil or “butter” with Earth Balance and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Peel the bananas and slice into circles, arranging in an even layer on the bottom of the pie pan. Place any extra banana slices on top of the layer, overlapping with the other slices. Sprinkle with a light dusting of cinnamon and drizzle with some fresh lemon juice and a light amount of honey.

Mix the flours and salt together in a small or medium bowl. Crack in the eggs and mix until you’ve reached a smooth, thick consistency. Mix in the coconut oil and coconut milk, being sure to stir out any lumps. The batter will be thick and creamy.

Pour the batter over the banana slices, being sure to completely cover the fruit. (If some of the fruit peeks out, that’s okay – just be sure that it’s at least coated with the batter.) Bake for 30 minutes or until it’s a light to golden brown in colour. The pancake will puff up during the last 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. As it cools, the pancake will sink a little or fall. Help loosen the edges of the pancake from the pie pan with a butter knife. Place a plate bottom side up on top of the pie pan and, wearing oven mitts, flip so that the pie pan is on top. The pancake should easily come away from the pan on to the plate – if it doesn’t, turn it over back into the pan again, take off the plate, and use the butter knife to loosen the edges down to the bottom, and try again. Serve warm or cooled at room temperature. Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing all your ideas and recipes. I don’t comment here often, but I wanted to wish you a merry christmas as a small thanks for everything that I’m learning from your blog…so merry christmas to you and yours! 🙂